WIRED Awake: 10 must-read articles for December 6

Your WIRED daily briefing. Today, major tech firms have teamed up to create a database of terrorist content, increasing global temperatures will result in more storms over North America, Google has released a new personal safety app to help your loved ones locate you and more.

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Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube have formed a partnership "to help curb the spread of terrorist content online" (The Verge). To this end, they're creating a shared database that identifies images of terrorist propaganda based on their hashes - a 'digital fingerprint'. The technique is based on a method developed by the UK's Internet Watch Foundation as a means of identifying child porn. If the social networks detect terrorist images, they'll be referred for human review to determine whether they violate the companies' terms of service.

New research indicates that climate change could result in a fourfold increase in rainstorms in some parts of North America over the course of the present century (Popular Science). The paper published in Nature Climate Change by a team from the USA's National Centre for Atmospheric Research details a computer model that illustrates the effect of warmer air in precipitating storms, as it holds more moisture, thus making for more frequent and substantial downpours. The model is based on past trends, most notably the increase in extreme precipitation events in the USA between 2000 and 2013. Lead author Andreas Prein told Popular Science: "Think about the most intense thunderstorm last summer. In the future climate in some places in the United States, you’ll get as many as five of those (each summer)."

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Google has released a new location-sharing app, designed to improve users' safety by allowing them to send location data to a selected friend or family member (Ars Technica). Trusted Contacts lets you give 'trusted' status to specific people from your contacts list. You can then quickly share your location with them if you feel unsafe, and if they're worried about you, they can request your location - which you can deny if you're available to respond the request; otherwise, your location will be automatically shared with your trusted contacts after five minutes. Google says that "whether you’re online or offline, in an emergency or just need reassurance, Trusted Contacts connects you with the people you care about most at the times you need them most."

The European Commission has warned that if major US tech firms don't improve their response to online hate speech, it may create new laws to force them to do so (WIRED). Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube each signed up to a voluntary ‘Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online’ in May of this year, which was created in response to an increase of racist content proliferating across the web. However, they've all been routinely failing to remove hate speech within the 24-hour period required by the commission, with Twitter in particular criticised for failing to police hate speech on its network.

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Uber has acquired machine learning firm Geometric Intelligence in order to use its researchers' expertise to build the core of its new artificial intelligence division: Uber AI Labs (BBC). 15 of Geometric's AI specialists will form the company's new San Francisco based team, which will reportedly work on everything from traffic prediction to the possibility of flying cars. Geometric co-founder Gary Marcus told the BBC that his company's work differs from standard deep learning techniques in that it's inspired by the way a child's brain develops when learning language skills.

It's surprisingly easy to access porn on VTech's supposedly locked-down InnoTab Max tablet, targeted at children aged between 3 and 9 (Motherboard). Privacy International researcher Eva Blum-Dumontet discovered that, although the tablet's main browser is locked down to a specific selection of kid-friendly sites, she was able to access porn sites, including video, by feeding their URLs into Google Translate. Blum-Dumontet says that "VTech clearly failed to foresee that inappropriate content could be reached on the tablet via Google Translate. If they could not foresee this, it raises serious questions as to what else they did not foresee when it comes to the toys' security." This isn't the first flaw to affect the Hong Kong based smart toy maker, which made headlines earlier this year after a breach exposed the account details of 6.3 million children

Google has begun rolling out Android 7.1.1 to its new Pixel phones, as well as select Nexus models released in the last couple of years WIRED. The release brings minor updates to version 7.1, which the Pixel phones shipped with, including a GIF keyboard and a more diverse range of emoji, as well as a number of stability fixes. The rollout will be completed "over the next several weeks" via over the air updates, according to Google.

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Artificial intelligence developed by the likes of Google's DeepMind and Elon Musk's OpenAI is taught within the confines of game worlds – including navigating around mazes, dodging deadly cliffs, playing laser tag and flying through space (WIRED). In a mission to build a general AI capable of solving any problem put in front of it, DeepMind is open-sourcing its game code to everyone. The software and 14 levels from DeepMind Labs will be put on GitHub later this week. Not to be outdone, Elon Musk's own OpenAI is also releasing its own 'computer training ground' called Universe. Universe is open-source software that supports Gym; OpenAI's toolkit for testing its algorithms which help software play games, for example, using a reward scheme.

Production companies Stories International and Circle of Confusion have teamed up to adapt Sega classics Altered Beast and Streets of Rage for film and television (Variety). Stories International is a joint production company created by Sega Group and Hakuhodo DY Group, while Circle of Confusion is behind series including Fear the Walking Dead and Dirk Gently. Stories is also developing film and TV projects based on other Sega titles, including Shinobi, Golden Axe, Virtua Fighter, The House of the Dead and Crazy Taxi.

If you've been finding 2016 a little rough, Malibu Dreams' Self-Love Hotel is a tiny illustrated text game designed to help you step away from your worries for a few minutes and think about looking after yourself Kotaku). Developer Sophie Mallinson notes that "it can be used as a self-care guide or played as a text adventure game". There's something remarkably soothing about just imagining the night sky and comfortable bed it describes. The game was developed in two days as part of Self-Care Jam, a game jam event that saw 37 entries created to help take the edge off your worries.

From pigeons being able to detect cancer to bomb-sniffing dogs, some of the most bizarre scientific experiments have warranted the most interesting insights. The latest? Strapping a pair of tiny goggles to a parrotlet to learn more about vortices during flights. Understanding vortices - the air patterns created by a bird’s wings as it generates lift - is key to understanding flight and building better drones. There are already well-established models explaining flight and how bird’s support their weight, and a team from Stanford wanted to test these by flying a bird called Obi through a laser sheet seeded with particles

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